Treaty “not worth dividing N.Z.”

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32604, 12 May 1971, Page 5

Treaty “not worth dividing N.Z.”

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, May 10. The Treaty of Waitangi was not an issue worth dividing the nation over, said the Bishop of Aoteoroa (the Rt Rev. Manu Bennett) in Dunedin tonight. "There is a tremendous growth in self-awareness of Maoris as an ethnic group. This fact comes out in many ways; it’s coming out in the pseudo-political attempt to ratify the Treaty of Waitangi,” Bishop Bennett said. He considered the treaty, although its legal basis might not have been strong, to have been of tremendous moral value. If the spirit of the treaty had failed it had only been because pakehas and Maoris had not been mutu-

ally acceptable or respectful to each other.

“If the future of the Treaty of Waitangi threatens the future of our nation then it’s of no use to me. I do not believe the treaty is worth dividing the nation over," he said. Replying to a questioner who asked how important land was to the Maori, Bishop Bennett said: “It is not right for us to make land such a big issue, for it becomes something that we sell our Christianity over.”

Earlier in his address entitled “Maoris in New Zealand” Bishop Bennett said there was a tremendous amount of tension in the situation of the Maori and pakeha, but the Maori was under greater stress—he had to be both a New Zealander and a Maori.

Tensions were invitable because man by his nature made judgments. Bishop

Bennett gave an example: His wife and he saw an American couple rudely treated by a hotel receptionist. Had they themselves been so treated they might have considered their being Maoris the explanation for the receptionist’s rude behaviour. The Maori had all the tensions of a minority group. A minority group had to struggle to keep its place in the Tine—not its place in the sun—but in the line, he said. The racial problem in New Zealand was small compared with that in other countries, but it should not be allowed to get out of hand. People in New Zealand would have to learn to live as one nation and not as separate groups.

The mixing of the races through marriage was a cause for optimism. Mixed marriage was not prevalent in countries overseas which had serious racial problems, I but it helped in New Zealand.

Bishop Bennett used the following words of a friend of his to describe this cause for optimism: “We’ve got too many Maoris with too many pakeha relatives to get caught up with racial situations they have in other countries.” Bishop Bennett was addressing the New Zealand Inter-University Fellowship.